42 



THE CARNATION. 



deprived of half its virtue, strength, and efficacy. 

 But to proceed : if you wish to make use of any of 

 this compost for the choicer vegetables in the kitchen 

 garden, you have only to mix the whole together, 

 and apply it in the spring ; but if it be intended as 

 manure to mix with loam for flowering shrubs, pines, 

 plants, &c., or for flower borders and beds, it will be 

 requisite to keep it a twelvemonth longer, making 

 eighteen months in all, before it will be fit for use, 

 and sufficiently comminuted and rotten to pass 

 through a coarse sieve. The addition of this fresh 

 earth to exhausted and worn-out gardens will be at- 

 tended with much benefit. 



In the beginning of March mix and incorporate 

 the whole together ; turn it again in April, and again 

 in May ; then put it together in the form of a ridge, 

 and let it remain so till Michaelmas. To preserve the 

 compost from losing its strength, by the powerful 

 exhalation of its saline properties by the sun in sum- 

 mer, 'incrustit with mould, or cover it with hurdles of 

 reeds or w r ith loose litter. 



This rule, however, does not apply to such ma- 



